This term I have set up a linguistics club with Yibo Zhao. He is the president and is responsible for the production of posters and the preparation of linguistics presentations. I am the vice president and am also the national campus ambassador for linguistics, responsible for leading the club menbers to practice for the International Olympics Linguistic and writing summaries and reports on our activities to be submitted to the committee of IOLC (International Olympics Linguistic China). Our club has been well received by the students since its inception and we have held many successful events, which has helped us to maintain our first place in the national ranking of clubs. At the end of November, the IOLC committee invited me to give an online talk to linguistics club leaders across the country about my experience and that of our club. I then completed a speech draft below, which includes my thoughts on running a society, some of the activities I have organised with Yibo, and some event references for other club presidents.

(p.s. I have posted the link of my sharing speech and the video of our club activity and the end of this article. My powerpoint slide has also been appended.)

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Hello everyone, I am Fang Ziyan, the vice president of the Linguistics Society of Nanjing Foreign Language School. Its my pleasure to make this speech here. Our club has just been established this year, so as a founder of a new club, I am willing to share with you about some of the experiences I have gained during my exploration.
There will be a number of specific activity design references in my sharing, but before that, I would like to say something about the underlying logic of club operations.

(A) The Underlying Logic of Society Operation

I often reflect on a question. Why do we always write flowery hanrangue to present our establishment purpose when applying for the club, but often feel that these sonorous and powerful words look kind of hollow and unrealistic? Why do we always initially plan the school year club activities with fully enthusiasm, but eventually have to face the frustration that the gap between our imagination and the reality is too large?
I think that many society operators will encounter such confusion. So today, I want to start from the underlying logic of society operation and discuss what a truly “excellent” student society should be like.

First, let us return to the definition of a society. What we call a club, or a society, is actually an organization formed by people who have certain common characteristics and hobbies. Here, there are two key words, the first is “common characteristics” and the second is “people”. When we design activities, our ideas often start from this “common characteristics”, thinking about which linguistic-related activities can be organized, including field research, lecture, project study, etc. However, we often find these ideas unrealistic for senior high students to carry out. Hence now, let us change our ways of thinking, from the aspect of “people”—— those who are interested in our society, and the schoolmates around us. What kind of needs do they have? What kind of knowledge and experience are they yearn for through linguistic club activities?

Take our school for example. We faced an important question when we planned to established the society: Who is this society for? There are roughly three types of students in our school: students going abroad for college study, students who will be recommended by school to language majors in top universities in China, and students preparing for the college entrance examination. Our current president Zhao is students applying for language majors, and I am a student preparing to go abroad. Zhao said, our school’s recommended students will learn English, German, French, Japanese or other minor languages in college, however many of them are unfamiliar with their future majors because they often dedicate a lot to mathematics, physics or chemistry competitions in order to get the qualification to be recommended by our school. Hence Zhao suggested that we can popularize some knowledge that these students have better to master or are about to learn in the university for them through this society. On the other hand, as a student who have participated in the International Olympics Linguistic, I deeply understand the difficulty of preparing the competition alone, not to mention the fact that Nanjing Foreign Language School has loads of IOL contestants but no communication platform is there for them. Hence, I hope to provide some sharing to the students preparing for IOL. After discussion, Zhao and I decide that instead of working separately, it is better to collaborate and to establish a comprehensive club. “Provide services for more students”, this is also the concept we emphasized when propagating. Look at our posters here. I think this is also the reason why we have won the favor of many students just at our beginning of establishment.

In addition, considering that apart from ordinary high schools like us, there are many representatives of international schools here listening to my speech, now I am going to introduce more detailly about how we can classify students going abroad and provide corresponding services. We know that most students who plan to go abroad are always certain about their application direction, i.e. what major they would like to apply for. Therefore, they will prepare for competitions and activities in a targeted manner during the first and second grades of high school. And from my perspective, the linguistics club can not only provide opportunities for students who want to learn linguistics, but can also be an excellent platform for conducting interdisciplinary research. For example, when we established the club, we planned to hold a field research during the winter vacation this year. There are currently two ideas for the content of the activity. One is to investigate the dialect changes of the residents of Mount Mei in Nanjing after they moved from Shanghai, and the other one is to investigate the relationship between adjectives describing the dishes on the restaurant menu and their prices. When considering the question of how to promote these reseach projects, I upheld the concept of “Provide services for more students” and designed a set of research propositions for students interested in different majors, for example:

• Biology: the physiological differences of dialect, the physiological determinants of phonetic phenomena;
• Computer and data statistics: how to obtain and analyze the corpus;
• Geography: the geographical factor causing the phenomenon of regional phonetic differentiation;
• Sociology, history: the evolution of dialects and the social problems it caused;
• Economy: the relationship between adjectives and prices on the restaurant menu;
• Politics, national customs, laws: how to formulate policies to protect dialects, etc.

I hope that by following this logic——proceeding from the actual needs of the students in your school——you will never be troubled by your unrealistic ideas any longer. And of course, if you don’t have such troubles currentely, I hope my sharing can help you broaden your ideas of society operation and gain more inspiration~

(B)Reference for the Design of Specific Activities

1. Translation activities: As a linguistics society, there must be quite a few multilingualists here. Why not take advantage of this by inviting friends who are good at particular languages to undertake some worthwhile translation activities? For example, our society president Zhao has been in contact with Maggie O’Farrell, a famous British fiction writer, and has obtained non-commercial use translation rights for her 2020 fiction “Hamnet” in the name of expanding the horizons of Chinese rural children. However, you know that sometimes it might not be easy to get access the right of translation, so here I have some extra advice. You can download quality viedos from YouTube or Facebook, manually translate them and post them on domestic video channels, as intelligent translation subtitles are not yet widely available. Certainly, if you willing to set current smart translation technologies as your research direction, that would be another great idea. There are vlogers on bilibili and Zhihu sharing such technologies, you can compare them and choose the one you consider as the most suitable to use or promote~

1. Field research: Linguistics is not only about learning languages, many social phenomena are also worth researching. The two fieldwork proposals I mentioned at the beginning mey serve as reference if you would like to organise relative activities. To introduce a little more details here, what we intend to do is to participate the fieldwork activity together, including interviewing, writing and distributing questionnaires, etc. Once we have collected the data and resources, we can choose different research topics as our interest, then integrate and analyse the resources and materials to complete our papers or reports. I believe that this experience will be very helpful in improving our academic skills, which is highly valued by the top schools all around the world, no matter what majors the paticipants are planning to take in their future studies.

1. a guide material for beginners && a organised set of questions: Those of you who have participated in the competition will understand that exercising is a crucial part of the International Olympiad Linguistics. Though some of the past papers can be found on the internet, it is difficult to find (free) beginner’s guide material or exercise with organised topics. For students preparing individually, take me myseld for example, last year when there were no clubs or seniors at school to guide me, solving and figuring out the questions on my own was a quite difficult process, as it was sometimes impossible to gauge the difficulty of the questions as well as myy level of solving problems, and I didn’t even know what past questions are proper to choose to practice. I found that many of other IOLs had similar experiences, so I came with an idea that with our experience in the competition, we can set up a guide material for beginners and a organised set of questions for our members, so that their learning will be much easier and more enjoyable.
   In terms of the organization of the set of questions, my plan is as follows.
   ① In the first semester I will offer the club members an introductory training on the basic linguistics competition questions, with a frequency of one question a week.
   ② At the beginning of the second semester I will provide an integration of questions of various categories covering grammar, syntax, lexicography, phonetics, phonology, semantics, numerical questions, odd questions and teamwork questions, etc. The training will last for about a month or two, and may be accompanied by inviting previous contestants or linguistics-oriented undergraduates to deliver relative speeches or lectures on the topic.
   ③ I will organise a mock test and a team selection test for the competition prepation stage after March next year. All participants of IOLC from the whole school (not only limited to club members) can come and take part in the test, which can provide a reference for team formation and preparation.

1. Academic material integration: I often envy some of the best long-established societies for their own unique academic material integration, which is the best treasure to pass on the next generations of members. The core club members update and enrich this integration with their knowledge, and then pass it on from one generation to the next, who can then pleasantly enjoy the wisdom of their predecessors. As a budding society leader, I cannot say for certain whether our academic pack will be in existence for a long time period in the future, but if you are willing to start this project as we do, I am very glad to share some basic ideas for you.

This is the table of contents of the handbook edited by our President for the would-be language students. As you can see, it starts with a basic introduction to sub-disciplines of linguistics, including phonology, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, etc. As many of our students will become English major students, hence he then introduces some specific research to Chinese language and English language. If you are preparing for the Linguistics Olympiad, you can also modify this part to integrate some of the problem-breaking ideas of the competition questions, for example, when solving numerical questions you should pay attention to the binary, while when you are solving grammar questions you should start with a comparison of the same morphemes in the corpus, etc. Finally, you could add some interesting extra topics such as psychology and sociolinguistics, dialects, or even how to get a hign mark in language exams (e.g. TOEFL and IELTS).

(C) Academic Resources and Access

• Past papers: itccc official wechat
• Scientific articles and videos: bilibili zhihu
• Other materials: Senior Group/Junior Group sample questions and handbook, Chen Run’s “Beginner’s Guide to Linguistics”, NPCSC Linguistics Club competition questions, North American and Russian past papers ……
• The following is the book list that we have compiled in our handbook for would-be language students, in which there are textbooks from top schools in China and around the world, as well as the recommended ones.

So, in what way should we share academic materials or promote and hold events? Here I have provided some ideas for you. For example, we can advertise through the club QQ group, the school public website and by putting up posters around campus. Regarding the format of the event, we can design offline presentations as well as organise some online lectures, so that even if some students cannot participate in the activity because of other arrangements of their own, they can watch the playback again later on. Finally, the easiest way to share your club’s activities is to upload group files and group albums, or, if you have a club WeChat number, ask a dedicated student to run it. In addition, uploading to online platforms such as bilibili and Zhihu is also a great option. For example, I uploaded the video of our last event to bilibili, and here is a screenshot of one part of it. As you can see, the site has a ‘navigation’ feature, meaning that I can post videos with the start time of each section, so that interested students can watch them as they are needed, which is really convenient.

(D) What can you gain by running a society?

Finally, I would like to get back to the underlying logic of running a society and discuss what the time spent working for a club can bring to you.
I know that actually not all of you are enthusiastic about fulfilling the ‘purpose’ of your application and doing more for the linguistic society, or perhaps you even started out with the idea that starting a club would bring you glory and add colour to your personal statement. But I think you definitely understand that, a full and authentic club experience will be greatly beneficial to your further education and even your life.
As the teacher in charge of our school’s Union of Societies once said, running a society is like running a company. At the beginning you need to define your goals and plans, you need to submit ‘cumbersome’ documents; you need to spend a lot of effort on publicity, during which you may face the helplessness of not being able to recruit enough members; during the process of operation you may encounter differences on ideas with other core members, and only through discussion and concessions can you reach a consensus; you may find that your initial ideas are too idealistic, and the reality forces you to revise or even abandon them.
You may suffer from sacrificing a lot during these days, but I hope you could understand that what you will gain in the end will not only be proficiency in organisation, but also an experience of meeting constant frustration and the grind of reality.

I hope that today’s speech has provided you some useful tips and ideas on how to run your society. Finally, I would like to thank you all for your patience to listen my long speech, and I wish all of you can gain a lot during operating a linguistic society!

The link of video of the sharing speech is:
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/lNJkJ-EkKsrSCof8yHfFTg

The link of video of our last event:
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1gF411a7Rh?share_source=copy_web

And here are my powerpoint slide:

Original link: https://fiona-f-ang.github.io/page/2/index.html

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Authors use the geographic perspective when crafting writing, stories, or other frictional works. The relationship between people and their natural and constructed environments is often a key part of a story’s plot, theme, or setting. In some books, there will be a large number of descriptions of the natural environment, and some books are even based on the exploration of nature as a plot clue. Deeply fascinated by these books, I would like to explore their individual and common features, as well as how their authors express clearly and perfectly through words about those deep and touching themes they want to share.

I read two novels during the summer holiday, both of which are closely related to geography. Personally I consider them as typical of geography novels. In the following paragraphs, I would like to share my views on the two books, attempting to sum up the common features of novels of this kind.

I.Earth Science Novels

To begin with, I re-read Jules Verne’s Trilogy( Journey to the Center of the Earth, Around the World in Eighty Days, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas) - it is also them which were my earth science initiation reads that left a lasting impression on me. I consider them as the typical of novels related to earth science, including adventure, science fiction, etc. Apparently, these compositions are characterised by a combination of imagination and modern science, and to some reflect reality to a certain extent.

①First of all, they were written under a background of the Second Industrial Revolution and colonial expansion, backed up by enormous industrial achievements, which, combined with Mr Verne’s magnificent imagination, made these works both realistic and prophetic of the future. For instance, before Verne, a few authors had already tried writing subterranean fictions. However, thanks to his thorough study of Victorian science, Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth is considered as an outstanding one among all this type of book – his concept of a prehistoric realm (which is going to be introduced in detail in the following paragraph) still existing in the present-day world.

Another example of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas could also be used to support this argument: the diving gear used by passengers on the Nautilus is presented as a combination of two existing systems: 1) the surface-supplied hardhat suit, which was fed oxygen from the shore through tubes; 2) a later, self-contained apparatus designed by Benoit Rouquayrol and Auguste Denayrouze in 1865. Their invention featured tanks fastened to the back, which supplied air to a facial mask via the first-known demand regulator. The diver didn’t swim but walked upright across the seafloor. This device was called an aérophore (Greek for “air-carrier”). Its air tanks could hold only thirty atmospheres, however Nemo claims that his futuristic adaptation could do far better: “The Nautilus’s pumps allow me to store air under considerable pressure … my diving equipment can supply breathable air for nine or ten hours.”

②Second, Verne refers to many achievements of the Industrial Revolution and natural science research in his works, integrating these esoteric inventive principles into the colorful storyline, making the extensive study of natural sciences live and popularize. For example, in Journey to the Center of the Earth, there is a genuine underground world which is filled by a deep subterranean ocean, with a rocky coastline covered by petrified tree trunks, the fossils of prehistoric mammals, and gigantic living mushrooms. It is also in the book that Verne discussed the possibility of reaching the center of the earth based on geological theories. Meanwhile, he also introduced us a variety of geological knowledge during the interaction of protagonists, including rocks and rock formations, pressure, volcanoes and so on.

③Third, from the perspective of plot, these compositions are often about travel and adventure, which is inseparable from the influence of the Age of Sail and Discovery. The protagonists’ courage to take risks, pioneer the wilderness, and conquer nature has inspired generations of readers, including me.

The characters in the novel have their own features. For instance, Nemo in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is an eccentric, knowledgeable, calm and resourceful captain; Professor Aronnax has an unlimited passion for scientific inquiry; while the whaler Nederland has a fiery and straightforward temperament. In Journey to the Center of the Earth, there is Professor Otto Lidenbrock, a hot-tempered geologist with radical ideas; Axel, a cautious young student; and Hans Bjelke, their resourceful and imperturbable guide. In Around the World in Eighty Days, the British gentleman Mr. Falk is as cool as a cucumber – despite the difficulties encountered during the journey, he never complains.

Besides the distinct personalities, they also have a lot in common. First of all, they are very humanitarian and attach great importance to friendship. For instance, Mr. Falk spent a lot of precious time saving unknown women and insignificant servants, who also helped him later. Captain Nemo wrestles with sharks to rescue pearl divers; he also tearfully buries his dead companion under the reef. What’s more, they all have a strong spirit of exploration and have always adhered to their beliefs. Even if goals seem impossible to achieve, they never give up.

④Last but not least, social systems, the two-sided effects of the Industrial Revolution, political revolution, etc. were also mentioned in these compostions. Through them, Verne aimed to provoke people to reflect on the society. Of course, as popular science writer, he used more descriptive than direct evaluation or satire, so as to present the lifelike social reality to readers. The most impressive example would be the identity of Captain Nemo, which was revealed in Verne’s later novel, The Mysterious Land. Born as an East Indian aristocrat, one Prince Dakkar, Nemo participated in a major 19th century uprising, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, which was ultimately quashed by the British. After his family were killed by the British, Nemo fled beneath the seas.

II. Human Geography Novels

The second book I read was Chi Zijian’s “The Right Bank of the Erguna River“(额尔古纳河右岸). This is a representative of a humanistic and geographical novel. From the perspective of a 90-year-old Evenk woman who is recounting her life experience, the book reflects the development of the Evenk people in the past hundred years. This nation lived peacefully in the forest, flourished under the grace and torture of nature. In the last century, they suffered Japan’s invasion and the Cultural Revolution. Currently, under the “invasion” of civilization, they had to wander between nomadism and settlement, facing a danger of losing their own culture… With a calm and gentle narrative style and ethereal language, the writer Chi Zijian recreates us the hundred-year persistence of life of the Evenk people and cultural changes they have experienced.

Many people consider this work as an epic elegy of a nation, while personally I think that it is also an elegy about a certain kind of wonderful life, an elegy about a certain kind of values and ways of life of human beings. In the book, people look up at the sky, respect rivers and mountains, admire the gods in their hearts, sing simple but beautiful songs, born in the “sound of the wind”, and finally buried in the wind. In addition to the image as the main character, what also touching and moving is the changing white clouds, the twinkling starlight, the Shilen Pillar, the reindeer, the moon, the Shaman’s dance, the birch and pine trees, and the bright flowing water…… They are not only the background and basis of the characters’ lives, but also the other protagonists in the book. Together, they constitute a beautiful and fragile world, a mixture of joy and suffering, of sadness and happiness.

I greatly appreciate Ms. Chi Zijian’s writing, her way of expression is pure and gentle as the snow in the north, which largely fits the style of story she depicts. Of course, as just mentioned, the description of the natural environment in the book makes this novel even more gripping.

Interestingly, there are comments on the Internet that this book is very similar to Márquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude“, which is also a book that I always appreciate. It tells about the faces of the mountains, rivers, seas, continents, animals, plants, religious peoples and peoples of the Latin American. Through the fictionalization of the century-long rise and fall of a family, it integrates historical reality and fantasy, interprets the history and destiny of Colombia and even the entire Latin American continent for a century in an epic and magnificent way. In the colorful giant picture, there are not only incredible miracles, but also purest real life. From my perspective, I consider these two books as both the pinnacle of the geographical novels and the jewel of human literature as a whole.

Conclusion

To summarise, all geography-related novels closely combine their plot with the depiction of the natural environment. Through popular science novels, readers can appreciate a lot of science and technology; in cultural novels, there are a great number of descriptions of society and characters’ mind. These novels all discuss the relationship between man and nature, inspiring our enthusiasm for exploring nature or gratitude for it. They also look down on human civilization from the perspective of nature, which not only gives readers a refreshing reading experience, but also provokes us to think deeply.

Original link: https://fiona-f-ang.github.io/page/2/index.html

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“Why should we ever read fairy stories ,when the truth of history is so much more interesting and entertaining?”

During the reading, I feel myself standing on the top of a mountain, with changes and changes of thousands of years ago under my feet just as passing clouds. Like a stage speaker, Von Loon spoke in soulful tones about the human world’s past and present in this book.He sighed over the destruction of a city, saddened by the barbarians’ trampling on civilization, and cried out for the tragic misfortune of civilians time and time again.

Just as the writer said, when we re-examine the past stories as bystanders, there is neither the flawlessness of winners, nor the uselessness of losers. Instead, vivid characters and episodes of ups and downs compose the history. There are too many impressive plots, some of which even subvert my previous stereotype of history: Christianity was suppressed, just because the believers were dissatisfied with the situation of citizen’s freedom of religion at the time, and tried to make Christianity the only belief of people; in order to realize his dream of becoming a religion leader, Muhammad even married a noble widowhood; after the end of war between Greece and Persia, Athens and Sparta, who had shared a bitter hatred of the enemy, did not take this opportunity to resolve their long-standing grievances. The civil war between the two city-states eventually led to the decline of Greece.

Besides the knowledge, this peculiar book, just as what the “Little History of the World” I read did months ago, once again corrected my prejudices against the “history book”. For example, I used to think that history books are those which list various events in chronological order. But Van Loon was more like telling a story in this book. He focused on the relationship between events and the impact of them on the current world.In addition, I used to think that history books are always written in boring languages and simply display historical facts to the readers. But Van Loon turned these boring events into beautiful stories. He never just described them simply and straightforwardly, instead he often guided readers into the context of history through imaginative descriptions.

“The Story of Mankind” is not a simple history book. It contains Van Loon’s profound thinking about the past and present, and his infinite hope for a better future of mankind. As the famous scholar Qian Mansu said, Van Loon “is not an esoteric theorist, but not necessarily don’t have his own ideology and ideas.” The topics he chose are basically about the most essential issue of human survival and development. What’s more, he showed his belief of the importance of rationality and tolerance in his compositions. “His goal is to challenge the ignorance and paranoia. The way he adopts is to popularize knowledge and truth, and make them common sense.”

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1/3. The Reason for Entering

This summer holiday I entered the Marshall Essay Competition, which is the second time I compose an essay myself.Firstly, I want to share my reason for entering– perhaps it is more appropriate to call it the reason for this “impulse”.

To be honest, I didn’t mean to take part in this competition at the very beginning, as I believed that the whole process of essay composition would cost a quite long time while I don’t have so much time during this summer. However, one of my original major activity was canceled, leaving me lots of free time. Once in economic class, my teacher showed me several Africa-related materials including GDP, HDI and some local government documents, asking for my comments. We discussed passionately about the current situation of Africa. My teacher analyzed from the perspective of economics, and introduced the economic system of Africa to me, which I was quite interested in. At the same time, I tried to use colonial history and geography to explain local situation, which was also affirmed and supported by the teacher. Suddenly I came up with an idea that there is a topic in this year’s Marshall essay competition about the development of Africa. I realize that this topic plays an extremely important role in modern society, as helping Africa develop can largely promote the reduction of poverty and thus accelerate international development. It is also a humanitarian project. However, this is by no means a simple question. All the factors that affect the local development should be considered, such as history, geography, economic system, political system, education and even culture. This kind of complexity is also the reason why experts and politicians has different perspectives on African issues. To summarize, I think this topic is very meaningful. It not only allows me to have a deeper understanding of the situation in Africa, but also allows me to form my own insights on international hot topics and cultivate my comprehensive analysis skills. Therefore, why not have a try?

2/3. The Process of Composing

Secondly, I would like to share the process of writing this essay, and compare it with my last experience.

It was less than two weeks before the submission deadline when I started preparing. Therefore, a good plan seems quite significant for this urgent task. First of all, I finished writing the outline within the first two days. Then I searched for data materials through Google, Baidu and World Bank. I sort them out, and at the same time developed my paragraphs. During this process I found that there are some arguments in my creation without evidence, thus I looked for their reference again. Finally, since the number of words greatly exceeded the limit, I deleted some redundant content.

The whole process is quite different from that when I participated in the John Locke competition, which I think can be considered as several progress I made when the second time I write essay on my own.

1. I recognize the importance of references. In the process of last time writing , I paid more attention on summarizing my views and getting inspiration by asking teachers and friends. In this way, although I have indeed came up with loads of my own ideas independently, there are few strong evidences to support them. On the contrary, during the process of this time writing , I read a lot of documents before composing, and what’s helped me a lot is the way of “snowballing” –looking for the parts I need in the references of a paper, therefore expand my scope of reading.
   I felt like my references this time are more substantial and the whole essay reads more professional.

2. I know more clearly about when to have my tutorial. Last time, my tutor and I made paid a lot of attention to the revising of proposal, but inversely not much to the paragraph development after the outline was completed. Unlikely, this time I only did two tutorials twice. For the first tutorial, I briefly confirmed the structure of the paper to my tutor, making sure that I should divide the paper into four parts: introduction, analysis, suggestion, and conclusion. And I also clarified the content of the two analyses and suggestions with my tutor. Then I started writing the draft by myself. When it was revised to my satisfaction, I sent it to tutor and then he suggested me to adjust the structure of specific paragraphs. In this way, I have a lot of time to polish my words, expressions and make the article reads more accurate.

However, there are still something I need to focus on next time – for example, the time for preparation was quite too limited, and that I only read some of the abstract of references instead of the whole content.

3/3. The Content of Essay

Last but not least, I am going to post my essay here.

This paper is quite different from the ones in the a-level economic examination. It is not a purely economic essay, but rather a land-econ one. And I really appreciate that it needs to use a lot of geographical, historical and other comprehensive factors to analyze the economy and development of a particular region. The following is my essay. It is a pity that some of the graphs and references can not be showed clearly here.

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QUE 6: AFRICA HAS OFTEN BEEN DESCRIBED AS THE ‘SHACKLED CONTINENT’. IS THERE STILL HOPE FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA?

FANG Ziyan

Nanjing Foreign Language School

1.Introduction

Three decades of effort on development in Africa have yielded pitiful returns, which accord with its title of ‘the imprisoned continent’[Guest, R. (2010). The shackled continent: Power, corruption, and African lives. Smithsonian Institution.]. African economies have been stagnating, even regressing. Chart 1A shows the GDP per capita of Africa underwent slow growth over the past 30 years, the value of which has always been the lowest or near the lowest among the ones of all continents. Additionally, chart 1B shows the balance of payments (‘BOP’) of African countries have been close to zero in the first fifteen years. Then large fluctuations appeared, even a long-term deficit, indicating the economy to be struggling or weak ones.

This article shall explore the factors that have hindered the economic development of Africa in the past, examining whether they will always hold Africa back, ultimately finding that there is hope for the continent.

Chart 1A GDP per capita of Africa, from 1991 to 2018

(source from World Bank)

Chart 1B BOP of all countries in Africa, from 1991 to 2018

(source from World Bank)

2.Analysis of the economic situation in Africa

2.1 Why has economic development been so poor?

Donald Kaberuka, who served as the president of the African Development Bank, pointed out two main factors which are often used to explain the failure of the development enterprise in Africa.2 The first is structural, including geographic and ecologic elements; for example, the high concentration of landlocked countries, tropical soils, and epidemics, etc. However, these factors are not the decisive ones. Second, and arguably more critical, is the history, politics and economy of African countries.

From the mid-15th century to the 1980s, many African countries were colonies. The colonists took resources but did not leave behind the core technology of the economy, the high-end local human resources, the complete industrial chain, and the design of a reasonable industrial structure based on the characteristics of the colony’s resources.[ 舒运国. (2020). 试析独立后非洲国家经济发展的主要矛盾. 西亚非洲, No.271(02), 93-112.] Hence many problems appeared post-independence. In terms of politics, ethnic and border conflicts left from colonial rule triggered border wars[ Dodo, M. K. (2018). Why is Africa Lagging Behind in Economic Development? A Critical Review. Journal of Asia Pacific Studies, 5(1).]. Terrorism spread, for instance, the “Kobo Haram” in Nigeria and the “Shabaab” in Somalia, which led to multi-party internal fighting.

As for the economic structure, the economic lifeline of a number of large African industries is in the hands of foreigners. For example, major oil companies such as Mobil, BP, CITRON, Eni, Total. Even if there are indeed local giants in Africa, such as De Beers of mining industry and MTN of telecommunications, their true controllers are still British, American and French.

2.2 Effects of these factors

Political turmoil has several adverse effects on African economic growth. Firstly, political instability may prolong production time and reduce commodity values, which directly leads to a decrease in international competitiveness. Second, investment falls. This is because once the political system changes, the uncertainty of future investments greatly increases, resulting in a decrease in investor confidence. Thirdly, there will be a large outflow of economically motivated migrants – a ‘brain drain’.

Furthermore, years of colonization have left Africa with an incomplete industrial chain and high-end development opportunities. The current development of most African countries still relies on the model of export-led growth. Nigeria, for example, experienced a recession in 2015-2016 and its government stated that the major factor responsible was the decline in oil revenues and the over-dependence of the economy on this single commodity [ Source from http://thenewsnigeria.com.ng/2016/09/fg-plansfiscal-stimulus-strategy-to-inject-15bn-in-ailing-economy/]. According to the Prebisch-Singer hypothesis[ Toye, J. F., & Toye, R. (2003). The origins and interpretation of the Prebisch-Singer thesis. History of political Economy, 35(3), 437-467.], an explanation for this phenomenon is that manufactured goods have a greater income elasticity of demand than primary products, especially food. Therefore, as incomes rise, the demand for manufactured goods increases more rapidly than demand for primary products. Furthermore a decline in commodity prices tends to reduce revenue rather than increase it, which can be noted from graph 2A. This explains why, despite being an export-led economy, Nigeria’s balance of trade has been negative in recent years, as chart 2B shows.

Graph 2A

Chart 2B Merchandise exports and imports (current US$) -Nigeria

(source from World Bank)

To evaluate the consequences, it should be noted that oil price changes lead to uncertainty lack of investment, lower aggregate demand (‘AD’) and growth. The collapse in oil prices reduces confidence, leading to declining foreign direct investment from $9.7 billion by the end of the second quarter 2014, to $0.64 billion at the end of the second quarter of 20164.
However, there are several advantages to be noted. When oil prices are high, this can increase net exports, AD and growth (graph 2C). On the other hand, when priced are low, it may result in an increase in the current account deficit which can depreciate currency, making other exports more price competitive and further increase AD and growth. Last but not least, investment of foreign countries in oil production can raise long run aggregate supply (‘LRAS’), which can increase real output, employment and living standards (graph 2D).

Graph 2C

Graph 2D

3.So is there hope?

There is still hope for economic development in Africa; so long as the factors which are dragging down its economic development are overcome, its future is promising.

3.1 Ways to aid Africa

Aids from developed countries are traditional projects. However, as mentioned, local economy has not improved much as a result. According to Dambisa Moyo, the reason is that the specific conditions of African countries have been ignored by donors: many of them do not have effective investment and taxation systems. Direct investment fell into the hands of corrupt bureaucrats and entered the consumption field, instead of the investment one.[ Moyo, D. (2009). Dead aid: Why aid is not working and how there is a better way for Africa. Macmillan.] The increase in AD leads to soaring prices and the emergence of inflation.

On the contrary, new forms of aid offered by developing countries such as China in recent years is more practical and feasible[ Campbell, H. (2008). China in Africa: challenging US global hegemony. Third World Quarterly, 29(1), 89-105.]. China invests in the construction of African infrastructure, in return for natural resources, such as rare metals, and the right to use ports. This cooperation not only helps Africa develop, but also offers China resources. Furthermore, China’s capital inflows have eased the capital outflows of African countries caused by Western investor profit remittances and international debt. Simulataneously, China has partially solved the problem of disconnection between the financial and production sectors in the African economy by investing in the real economy.9 For instance, the local employment driven by infrastructure projects of the China Railway 20th Bureau in Africa has brought long-term productivity improvements[ Brautigam, D. (2011). The dragon’s gift: the real story of China in Africa. OUP Oxford.]. Nevertheless, there are still several shortcomings in the use and distribution of funds by China for aid projects in Africa. For example, it was found that its aid benefited more politically privileged regions (such as the birthplace of leaders) than others. In this regard, China should refer to other aid projects that are more evenly distributed, such as the ones of the World Bank.[ Bluhm, R., Dreher, A., Fuchs, A., Parks, B., Strange, A., & Tierney, M. J. (2018). Connective financing: Chinese infrastructure projects and the diffusion of economic activity in developing countries.]

3.2 From the inside

What the African countries need is not only various types of assistance, but also the establishment of their own economic system. African countries should strive to diversify their economies by developing secondary and tertiary industries. In addition, engaging with the international financial market can be another helpful way to development for African countries. They can obtain the funds needed for conomic development through the issuance of treasury bonds. This enables the country to gradually increase its credit by paying the principal and interest on time, and gradually reduces the risk premium of interest rates.6

Though the physical geography of Africa cannot be changed, several man-made problems can be improved. For example, rapid population growth has strained croplands. This contributes to deforestation, putting pressure on the ability of the region to adapt to climate change and the fragile ecology of the dry lands[ Brahmbhatt, M., Bishop, R., Zhao, X., Lemma, A., Granoff, I., Godfrey, N., & Te Velde, D. W. (2016). Africa’s New Climate Economy: Economic Transformation and Social and Environmental Change.]. To solve this problem, intensifying agriculture to boost yields, combined with climate-smart farming techniques, can help raise farmers’ incomes, reduce environmental degr dation and strengthen resilience to climate change. To summarize, strategies which recognize the close links between economic, social and environmental priorities are helpful in the long run.

4.Conclusion

Ultimately, although many factors have hindered economic development in Africa, there is still hope. However, while there are solutions to the problems in theory, their implementation is by no means an easy task. The primary economic structure has taken root in African countries for a long time. It is not easy to carry out the transformation which requires sufficient technology and a large amount of capital. The settlement of social turmoil and national conflict cannot be accomplished overnight as well. Similarly, the geographical issues cannot be completely resolved in the short term.

Many countries and organizations are making efforts in the development of Africa, in order to accelerate the development of the world economy. They are constantly improving aid projects or development policies, looking for more proper ones. Therefore, the future looks bright.

ADDITION: BIBLIOGRAPHY

> [1]Guest, R. (2010). The shackled continent: Power, corruption, and African lives. Smithsonian Institution.
> [2]舒运国. (2020). 试析独立后非洲国家经济发展的主要矛盾. 西亚非洲, No.271(02), 93-112.
> [3]Dodo, M. K. (2018). Why is Africa Lagging Behind in Economic Development? A Critical Review. Journal of Asia Pacific Studies, 5(1).
> [4]http://thenewsnigeria.com.ng/2016/09/fg-plansfiscal-stimulus-strategy-to-inject-15bn-in-ailing-economy/
> [5]Toye, J. F., & Toye, R. (2003). The origins and interpretation of the Prebisch-Singer thesis. History of political Economy, 35(3), 437-467.
> [6]Moyo, D. (2009). Dead aid: Why aid is not working and how there is a better way for Africa. Macmillan.
> [7]Campbell, H. (2008). China in Africa: challenging US global hegemony. Third World Quarterly, 29(1), 89-105.
> [8]Brautigam, D. (2011). The dragon's gift: the real story of China in Africa. OUP Oxford.
> [9]Bluhm, R., Dreher, A., Fuchs, A., Parks, B., Strange, A., & Tierney, M. J. (2018). Connective financing: Chinese infrastructure projects and the diffusion of economic activity in developing countries.
> [10]Brahmbhatt, M., Bishop, R., Zhao, X., Lemma, A., Granoff, I., Godfrey, N., & Te Velde, D. W. (2016). Africa's New Climate Economy: Economic Transformation and Social and Environmental Change.

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This is the first time that I took part in an English essay writing competition. I didn’t won a prize, anyway. Nevertheless, this experience is quite precious for me– for my English study, my essay writing skills, and my critical thinking training.

I’ve never written an essay before. I’m always good at composing Chinese novels and narrations, as I love telling stories, love describing scenes and landscapes. But when it comes to write an organized professional essay, I hadn’t got any idea. Therefore, the whole process of composing this John Locke essay is literally challenging for me.

• 1. There are several topics that I can choose from, and I finally decided to compose a historical one. I’m interested in considering the philosophy nature of history, and thinking of the variety of people’s opinions on historical events. Hence I choose this topic: Should we judge those from the past by the standards of today? How will historians in the future judge us?
     Then after I chose the topic, I started to list an outline of the article, select my arguments by brainstorming. I asked my tutor to check that whether my proposal could be improved. He proposed that some arguments are kind of decisive and need more evidence to prove them. Hence I started looking for historical materials, and completed specific paragraphs. I was in contact with tutor during this process. Sometimes I find that my original logic is not feasible, sometimes I get new inspiration– I even break away from the traditional writing format and dare to challenge the question( which I added in my intro).

• 2. Vocabulary and expressions is also a disturbing part. Sometimes I don’t know how to express in a accurate way, sometimes don’t know about a exact academic word. But I tried my best to force myself to think in English and make my essay reads more fluent. I determined to expand my vocabulary since then… :P

• 3. Though I worked hard on this essay, there are still a lot parts need to be improved. For example, I cited few references in my essay, which makes it not convincing enough. I also felt that my ideas are not that creative and always traditional, even stuffy. Hence I would like to do more critical thinking training in the future.

Whatever, here I’ll record my first experience of writing a formal essay. Hope that I can improve my skills and compose better ones one day.

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Addition (my essay) :

TOPIC: SHOULD WE JUDGE THOSE FROM THE PAST BY THE STANDARDS OF TODAY? HOW WILL HISTORIANS IN THE FUTURE JUDGE US?

Since the ‘cultural turn’ of the 1970s, considerable attention has been given to the issue of whether historians should judge the past. How historians judge the past substantially depends upon the historiographical methods available to them. In recent years, the rapid development of big data technology has enabled new modes of historical enquiry and analysis. As a consequence, how historian judge the past and the ‘standards of today’ are constantly changing. On an individual level, the way in which past societies are ‘judged’ depends on the personal political beliefs and moral values that contemporaries hold. Views vary from person to person. Some people belief that we should judge those from past by the standards of today because the lessens of the past may be practically or usefully applied in the present. On the contrary, others strongly argue against this approach, viewing the application of present standards onto the past as ahistorical and misleading. They instead propose that it is more appropriate to evaluate past events based on standards of that time.

These different positions on whether we should judge those from the past by the standards of today assume that historians can detach themselves from present standards. However, none of us can get rid of the influence of the history education we receive today. In all aspects of historical enquiry, the standards of the present influence how we understand and evaluate the past. This is reflected in the historical subjects we choose to study, the historical sources we choose to examine and the methods of historical analyze that we employ. In all this, we can never get out of our own attitudes and cannot stop using standards of today. Accepting this, the best way of judging a particular historical event is to evaluate it from different aspects, using various criteria. Such criteria include moral, economic, and epistemological standards. Whether we should judge those events by the standards of today depends on the property of each criterion.

There is no established set of standards that is universally shared. This is reflected in the differences in moral standards in our own time. For instance, experts have various opinions on the hotly debated issue of whether the ‘precautionary principle’ should become part of national and international law. The ‘precautionary principle’ is an approach used by policymakers to decide whether to adopt new innovations and technologies. It is commonly used when such innovations are potentially harmful and when there is limited scientific research on their potential negative impacts. Agne Sirinskiene argues that ‘precautionary principle’ is becoming or even has already become a rule of customary national and international law in her essay The Status of Precautionary Principle : Moving Towards a Rule of Customary Law.[ A. Sirinskiene, The Status of Precautionary Principle: Moving Towards a Rule of Customary Law (Jurisprudencija, 2009)] Conversely, Ken Cussen argued in Handle with Care: Assessing the Risks of the Precautionary Principle that the ‘precautionary principle’ is dangerous as it is often invoked as a way of handling risk in situations of scientific uncertainty.[ K. Cussen, Handle with Care: Assessing the Risks of the Precautionary Principle (Australasian Journal of Environmental Management, 2009)] The idea that there are no set of moral standards is also true historically. This evident in contemporary conceptions of the ‘Age of Discovery’. European missionaries saw colonial expansion as a way of exporting Christianity and ‘saving the souls’ of indigenous populations who held different religious beliefs. On the other hand, the violent methods used in this period was also understood to bring many harms. Bartolomé de las Casas condemned the violence of European expansion in the ‘New World’ in his Historia de las Indias (1561). In both contemporary and past societies, there was no consensus or established set of ‘standards’ by which people understood the past.

Using different criteria to evaluate history – as a way of combating the projection of present standards onto the past – has its own set of problems. This is evident in economic evaluations of the past. Economic development in the past is often evaluated according to prevailing economic values and ideas. However, when historians project economic standards based on modern ideas of capitalism back onto earlier periods of history, they misunderstand that earlier societies did not understand the economy according to these ideas. The idea of ‘Classical Economics’ – the earliest concept of economics – only first appeared in Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations which was published in 1776. There is no doubt that the change in GDP per capita can be considered as significant measure of economic ‘progress’. However, the conception of GDP was proposed in the 1930s. The use of GDP to measure the economic success of past societies assumes that these societies sought to maximize GDP and understood this as a measure of ‘progress’. In most cases there is no comparison between the way people from the past judged economic development and the way in which we do today. For example, in the Middle Ages, rulers in feudal agrarian societies believed that their economic policies should ensure social stability. Consequently, they paid more attention to changes in the price of goods and crop harvests to determine their economic policies. They did not consider GDP per capita, nor did they need to compare their economic conditions with other countries, in their conception of their economic development. In the case of economics, historian must judge the past using the economic standards of that time.

Similar issues can be found with epistemological evaluations of the past. Knowledge from the past is often discredited or ignored if it does not fit present understanding or standards of knowledge production. However, we should not judge knowledge from the past by the standards of today. Greater emphasis should be placed on assessing the influence of past ideas in their own time and their impact on subsequent developments in knowledge. This is most evident in the historical connections and developments in scientific knowledge. Although many of Aristotle’s views were overturned by later researchers, these ‘wrong ideas’ had a great influence on people’s worldview at that time. For example, Aristotle asserted in De Caelo (350 BC) that the speed at which an object falls is proportional to its weight. According to this view, heavier objects would fall faster than lighter ones. However, Galileo, a sixteenth century scientist, repudiated this idea which had been accepted for centuries. In The Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632), he proposed that the object’s descending speed has nothing to do with its weight. Galileo postulated that if the air resistance of two objects with different weights is the same or can be ignored, then the two objects will fall at the same speed and reach the ground at the same time. He verified this hypothesis by dropping two iron balls from the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Galileo overturned Aristotle’s earlier assertion and laid the foundation for modern kinematics theory, a theory which can be considered a ‘standard of today’. The issues raised by the examples of economic and epistemological standards shows that historians should not judge the past by the standards of today and instead should use a combination of different criteria to try to offer a more balanced view.

One of the major issues with using the standards of today to evaluate the past is that these standards are constantly changing with time. Considering how historians in the future will judge us is therefore difficult to ascertain. However, there are broad trends in historical methodology and analysis that look like to continue based on recent technological developments. The development of big data technology such as computer algorithms for analyzing historical data and chemical methods such as carbon dating will result in greater accuracy in historical evidence. This will enable historians to have a more extensive and comprehensive collection of historical data. Thus, future judgments are more likely to offer an objective analysis of the past and be less colored by contemporary biases and standards.

When judging a particular historical event, the most comprehensive way is to evaluate the past is to consider different aspects and criteria, namely moral, economic, and epistemological standards. Whether we should judge those events by the standards of today depends on how applicable these criteria were in past societies and how they understood their own societies and the world around them.

Bibliography

Agne Sirinskiene: The Status of Precautionary Principle: Moving Towards a Rule of Customary Law. (Jurisprudencija, 2009)
Ken Cussen: Handle with Care: Assessing the Risks of the Precautionary Principle (K Cussen - Australasian Journal of Environmental Management, 2009)
Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaulti de Galilei: Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo, tolemaico e copernicano
Isaac Newton: Mathematical Principles of Nature Philosophy (1687)
Aristotle: De Caelo
Jared Diamond: Guns,Germs,and Steel:The Fates of Human Societies(1997)
Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich: The Little History of the World (1936)
L. S. Stavrianos:A Global History: From Prehistory to the 21st Century (1970)

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I attended the International Olympics Linguistics China this year.

In the open round I got the first prize. In the final round, though unfortunately, I caught gastroenteritis, I still got the silver medal in China. Perhaps this ‘failure’ is also a reminder of the importance of being healthy. Alright, honestly it is a unique experience to take part in this competition and I would like to record it in this blog.

As for the subject of linguistics itself, I got a brief understanding of what and how linguist study. I read several materials of this subject to get some professional knowledge, and I also experience the way linguists sum up rules from the corpus through the process of solving problems in the competition. Besides the subject itself, I tried to explore the connections between subjects either. For instance, I found a clear logic could be quite helpful when solving problems. I need to record my inspirations and my ideas, to make sure that I can find the rule step by step. What’s more, it is literally surprising that I also found that it is easier for me to understand the problems and materials in the Chinese, political and history exams. I reckon that this is because as I got a deeper understanding of the structure of sentences and words, I became more confident and less confused when reading long and obscure articles.

About the exercise I have done for preparation, I did several past papers to get familiar with the possible problems that I need to solve. Also, I searched for some professional books and videos that give some tips of how to be more competitive in this match. I organized the professional knowledge that I had learned into mind maps and notes, and added new key points as soon as I met them in the process of doing past papers. My deskmate Angle took part in IOL too, thus we often share the difficult problems we found with each other. I really enjoy this process of exercising.

It is a pity that we don’t have a team match because of the virus. If I’m going to take part in the IOLC in the next year, I will definitely try to do some group works with my teammates.

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This is the end of my senior one. This year I studied in a famous normal senior high school, in which many of the students are preparing for Gaokao – the entrance examination of the university in China. Besides, I also prepared a lot for the A Level test. Though I cannot find a proper teacher in my city, I tried to study by myself. Here I got some ideas about the difference between British and Chinese Education System.

To begin with, I would like to compare the textbooks or sessions in the two countries.

①Length of study: three years for Gaokao and two years for A level.

②Subjects: Gaokao includes Chinese, mathematics, English, physics or history, and two subjects of biology, politics, geography, and chemistry, while A-level learners choose 3-4 subjects from more than 70 subjects.

③Sessions: Gaokao students study all 9 subjects in the first year of high school, and choose the subjects of the high school entrance examination in the second year. A level learners study the AS course in the first year of high school, and the A2 course in the second year of high school.

④Allocation of knowledge in different levels: Gaokao textbooks are divided by topics of the knowledge, while A level textbooks always have all the knowledge in them, but the difficulty increases with the order of the textbooks.

Secondly, their ways of testing have some part in common, while there are also some different parts. As for natural science subjects, AL focus more in the interpretation of daily phenomena, while Gaokao mainly pay attention to the analysis and calculation of ideal models. However, regarding social science subjects, both of them contain multiple choice questions about the key points in the textbook and essay writing sessions.

Last but not least, I concluded various ways of exercising according to the two system. For natural science subjects, AL learners should pay more attention to applying the knowledge from their textbooks in daily life; and of course they should also understand the sample questions in the book too. Gaokao learners need to do a lot of exercises to make sure they would not make any mistakes while analysising and calculating, and it’s better for them to summarize the types of different questions. As for the social science subjects, regardless of in which education system, students are required to accumulate a lot of reading.

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PS:

I’ve got a satisfactory score in the final exam- thanks to the special learning method which I learnt from Feynman! I would like to share the method here since it’s always so helpful.

• Step 1: Determine learning goals and learn by myself.
• Step 2: Teaching. My friend Amy and I taught each other the subjects we were good at, trying to make each other understood.
• Step 3: Review. Reflect on the problems encountered in step 2, such as where it got stuck and where the other party did not really understand. Record these issues.
• Step 4: Simplify. I will reorganize and understand the problems encountered, learn as much background and relevant knowledge as possible, and then re-express it in a simplified way as much as possible, trying to grasp the key points and see through the essence. Then, return to step 2.

I am so addicted to this way of learning and reviewing that sometimes I even try it by teaching no one but me myself!

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[1] Linguistics is a science. Linguists investigate how people acquire language-related knowledge, how this knowledge interacts with other cognitive processes, how it changes between speakers and geographic regions, and how language knowledge is modeled computationally.
They study how to represent the structure of various aspects of language, such as sound or meaning, how to theoretically explain different language models, and how different components of language influence each other. Linguists develop and test scientific hypotheses. Many linguists advocate the use of statistical analysis, mathematics, and logical formalism to explain the language models they observe.

[2] Linguistics is a tool, the purpose of using which is to communicate. Just like other sciences, it describes some extremely ordinary facts, and proposes scientific hypotheses or theories to explain these facts. The apples only fall towards the ground and do not fly into the sky. Polar bears have thick fur. When we first come into contact with a language, we can quickly understand the structure, grammar, and pronunciation of the language through linguistic knowledge to communicate with others. Compared with the beautiful literary works themselves, the inherent beauty of the rules of each word, and their wonderful evolution from meaning to sound, is even more amazing.

[3] Language is a unique way of communication for humans. It reflects the highly evolved mental abilities of human beings on the biological or psychological level, and reflects the progress of human civilization on the level. Linguistics is to study the core instinct of human language ability, through the analysis and research of spoken language, written language and even sign language, and then understand the nature of human beings.During studying I even found the connection between linguistics and other science subjects, for instance, many phenomenon that are related to difference between regions can be explained by geographic knowledge, and the process of finding the language rules always needs a lot of statistics.

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I.THE RECORD

“Have you ever lost a basketball game?”

Lost.
Lost.
Screaming shrilly the final whistle, the basketball slipped to the ground, as the opposing audience applauded and shouted vigorously. It bounced helplessly for several times on the red plastic track that the white sneakers had stepped on, and then lay down motionless, never waking up.

The net.
Empty.
I can’t wake up, an empty dream.
That perfect- almost illusory- air ball becomes my only and final glory.

The match was over.
It seemed, insensible.
That is, the sun is as dazzling as ever. It seems like every noon at which we rushed out from the classroom, it seems like every art class which we escaped through the back door, it seems like every conversation with making notes on a small book, leaving a shadow.
That is, there is an inexplicable impulse. It seems that it was just a cutscene in this familiar place. It seems that I used to work very hard to become a qualified power forward. It seems that I am also very desperate to take on the role of a point guard. However, when the game was over, how dare I say that, I worked hard, I tried my best.
That is, as Yomi said, helpless. A rebound, a tall girl, stretched out her hands. Yeah, basketball, the sport of giants. It’s ridiculous to think about dozens of shots and boards made by the opponent and only three shots from top to bottom of the team. One-third of the hit rate. Fairly high, fairly helpless.
That is, there is no expected frustration. It seemed suddenly, just annoyed. It seems such a familiar scene, I wondered where I have seen it, who has mentioned it, and when I have been told that I must pay attention to it.
That is, after the game I saw many classmates writing encouraging words for us players on the blackboard, comforting us that we have done our best. Thus I returned to the podium, picked up the chalk and prepared to write something. Suddenly, guilt slammed into the fragile flower like a heavy rain that was caught off guard, falling to pieces. It seems that I am very stubborn. It seems that I, an idealist, portrays all strategies and analyses unrealistically. It seems that I broke my promise. I played the power forward terribly. Even though I have everything in terms of steals, blocks and breakthroughs, I still can’t prevent the opponent’s short passes; I played the point guard to the ridiculous point and had no chance to use the pick-and-roll once which I cooperated with Anna in the best. It seemed that I had tried, bravely, and scored, but it was almost meaningless. It seems that I’m sorry to the Blazers and team number I love, I’m sorry to establish the belief that we must win the Warriors. It seems that I wasted, too much precious high school time, troubling the men’s basketball players and senior sisters to teach us almost mentally handicapped skills and cooperation, receiving so many professional and unprofessional guidance, analysis and encouragement, and in the end, nothing was achieved. As if I couldn’t grasp the opportunity, the two to four score and the remaining warmth of the hollow goal deceived me. As if I thought, I still have a chance to come back and score more. I never have a chance again. Holding the chalk, it was somehow weak to write anything.

But my teammate Charlotte said, “Thank you for letting me participate in this grand dream.” In this grand dream, there are you, and me.

This grand dream–
Comes from disputes and boiling eyes from under the plane tree, from the sincerity of tears at the first time watching the game, from the brewing of the midsummer sunshine, from the fascination with a team and several players, and from the trembling when receiving the favorite team clothes, from the persuasive fantasy that I dare not mention about the covenant to win the championship.

In this grand dream–
There are dirty hands covered with red paint, there are two little girls that were soaked in the light rain but skipping, there are some look at their opponents and smile, and there are small groups of people who are constantly beeping for advice and discussion, confident. There are full, anxiety, discouragement. The most important one is the stability, warmth and moving when we hugged our teammates.

In this grand dream–
There are the most responsible coaches, cross-class friendly matches and the most sincere promises to meet in the final match, there are simple words which brought countless warm compliments to the little girls, there are shouts from friends on the sidelines, and there is a large box of mineral water, a camera, and photos shining under the sunlight.

In this grand dream–
The ones sitting on the court, the ones holding heads tightly, the ones behind the screen. Quietly, or presumptuously, crying. Just cry, my friends. That’s not because you can’t afford to lose, that is because you love it too much.

In this grand dream, I finally understand- what is basketball, what is team, and what is love.

It seems, it seems.
In a trance, a few little girls in black jerseys rub their hands, looking forward to the next game. The heavy shadows on the red track were flying lightly. And a ball, a black ball, a perfect air ball.
“Huh.”
She smiled.

II.THE REFLECTION

How to be a qualified leader? What have I done and what more can I do?

First, envision, which is definitely the most important quality. We have very little preparation time for the game - only less than two weeks. Thus I and two coaches (who are the men’s basketball players in our class) arranged our players’ roles in the team according to their different strengths and set everyone’s training goals, with the intention of diversifying the team by maximizing each individual’s strengths. Charlotte, for example, has excellent shooting ability and is one of the few girls with a high three-point shooting rate, but not a high profile. So I suppose her to be a quarterback, grabbing the scoring opportunities outside the free throw line. Secondly, Wang is fast and aggressive, with strong breakthrough ability. What’s more, she is fairly good at making up the rebound. So I suggest she should be a small forward and score for us in the area under the basket. Thirdly, as for me myself, I seldom practice shooting, but I am good at defending, passing and controlling the ball. Although I am short, I have the ability to steal and cap. So I recommend myself to be a big striker, doing a good job of passing, and limiting the scorer of the other side. As for the two substitutes, Anna is tall, capable and stealing, and has a natural advantage in grabbing rebounds. So she is the best choice to be a center. Emily’s shooting ability is so strong that she can be another quarterback who plays for Charlotte during Charlotte’s break.

However, I missed two points, which were the ones of the most important reasons we lost. First of all, my idea is too idealistic. We are an all-round team, but the other teams do not have such a detailed division of labour. I imagined other teams to be so formal that I thought they would be as well-equipped as we are, with conventional strategies. In the reality, however, the vast majority of women’s basketball teams in our grade don’t have a quarterback with great shooting ability, so they didn’t choose to attack from long range. In the end, they controlled the rebound and we lost even all the choices of holding the ball. Secondly, other teams chose to let each player develop different abilities, such as shooting, stealing, defense, attack and so on, precisely because each person’s ability is not outstanding. On the contrary, we ignored the training of disadvantages. The quarterback didn’t know how to defend, often ending up leaving the other side empty-handed; I never thought to shoot as a big forward and point guard. Here’s an example that can prove me wrong, where the quarterback actually didn’t get a chance to shoot in the final game and I was forced to shoot and scored for our team.

Second, engagement. This is the point where I like our team best. Every long breaking, noon, afternoon school, we went to the playground training. What’s more, I often invited the school team’s older brothers to guide us, also asked other team leaders to play training matches. As the whole school students know, our team will always started training every day the earliest, at the same time ended the latest. However, what they don’t know is that, after returning home, I would also send a summary of the daily training to the chat box, and we continued a heated discussion in the QQ group.

Third, energizing. I appreciate our team very much since the teammates are very warm and considerate. We bought each other drinks and snacks. We hugged each other when felt depressed. I also said a lot to encourage everyone before the game to build their confidence.

Fourth, enabling. I’m not the best player in the team, but I’m always keen to share what I’ve learned with my teammates. For instance, I would teach the teammates who weren’t good at defending how to observe the attackers, and I would also tell the center how to move to the best position.

Fifth, excellent execution. For myself, I watched a lot of short videos of NBA games to learn the skills of the basketball stars. At the same time, I surfed the Internet to consult a variety of information about strategies, and I asked around friends and predecessors who have a broad knowledge of basketball as will.

Sixth, persuading. During my communication with the teammates, parents, opponents, and schoolchites, I learned how to express my opinions and asks euphemistically, and I finally understood that the most important thing in a successful conversation is sincerity.

Original link: https://fiona-f-ang.github.io/page/2/index.html

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Recently I am doing research on programme study of physical sciences, social sciences, education and geography, which are my favorite subjects. In the following article I intend to discuss some of my ideas on them.

【1】PHYSICAL NATURAL SCIENCE

This subject area concentrates a lot on discovering the interconnections between apparently discrete subjects, as the blurring of boundaries between the different sciences which all offer people a fundamental understanding of the way the universe works.
It acquires a lot of skills as well. Physics students always need to gain an insight into different scientific methods. To achieve this goal successfully, they need to develop their intellectual skills, such as critical thinking, analysis, problem-solving skills. During specific programs, they must use their research skills, including data management and analysis, critical analysis, specialist research methods.What’s more, communication and presentation skills also play an important role in their study, including written, oral, non-verbal. Organizational skills are often required in order to improve themselves, such as independent working, managing time. When cooperating with others, they need interpersonal skills, such as teamwork, negotiation, delegation, flexibility, adaptability. These various skills are highly valued by employers of all types, as a result they can be qualified for a range of jobs like teaching and researching at the very forefront of current scientific knowledge, tackling some of the most important challenges, research strengths, and successful academic collaborations and professional accreditation.
It is interesting to note that professors not only want their students to be someone have strong academic ability, but also wish them to become someone who progresses their area of science, someone with their own ideas and opinions who initiates rather than imitates.

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【2】POLITICS, ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

Politics student study how government work, how public policies are made, and also international relations. To study and practice, they write reports and essays, attend lectures and seminars, hear from politicians, go out to have placement and industry experience, and undertake data-analysis training. I also did some researches on the disciplinary major of Politics and History, as I’m quite interesting in it. This major links major disciplines in humanity and social science, provides historical context to your studies in political science, and also develops your transferable skills: intellectually rigorous arguments based on sound, independent research and analysis. Last but not least, I was a little bit worries that whether this subject is sensitive because of the various of political views and ideology. Fortunately, a teacher in Cambridge told my not to worry about that because in college we study it in an academic angle, not including our personal statements.
Economics student focus on how consumers, firms and government make decisions that collectively determine how resources are located, by make sense of governmental policy-making, the conduct of businesses and the enormous economic transformations throughout the world.

During my research I found it is quite interesting that Maths are always important in every social science subjects. Economics need statistics of course, and maths can also help us understand logic course in philosophy and theories in policies. To be honest, this discovery strengthened my determination to study mathematics >-<

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【3】EDUCATION

One teacher in Cambridge taught me that if I want to apply for this major, I should think of the following questions.

①Reason for applying

• When I was preparing for my entrance exam for the senior high schools, I realized the important roles that teachers and textbooks play on one kid’s study experiences.
• I was influenced by my favorite philosopher and writer Rousseau and his book EMILE.
• I am really interested in the combination of education and other social sciences such as sociology, philosophy and history.

②Your advantages

• I’ve got lots of back ground information by reading various educational books.
• I took part in several competitions of social science, such as NEC and IOL. I also did some researches myself or leaded by teachers.
• I’m always willing to cooperate with others.

③Further goals

• I want to do further researches after graduation. Also, doing interdisciplinary research in PHD study is very fascinating to me.
• I want to be a writer of educational books or a educational policy maker.
• I want to make some improvement in teaching methods, such as new ways of teaching like online teaching. Also, I want to improve the composition of textbooks, in order to make sure that students can learn new knowledge in a more comfortable and easy way.

④Prepared things

• I was among the top 400 students in my city in the entrance exam of senior high. I also won lots of prizes, such as the national first prize in IOL open round.
• I am a vice president of a biology club, and I have organized plenty of activities successfully.
• I am good at written work and making speeches. I came first in a speech competition in our grade and came second in another.
• I had chance to taught younger student in my primary schools, and they were quite interested in the stories I shared with them.

⑤Five important skills that I have

• language skills- I am always confident about expressing ideas and making speeches.
• academic skills- I have done lots of written work and further study on topics that I am interested in.
• good temper- I am willing to express myself in logical and tactful ways, in order that other can understand me easily and pleasantly.
• cooperation&leadership
• association&imagination- I can respond quickly when contacting with new things. For instance, when I learn a new theory, I can always think of theories that I have learned in the past and connect them together.

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【4】GEOGRAPHY

Geography students focus on all the biggest challenges in our planet, including globalization, environmental politics, urbanization, conservation, climate change, glaciation, volcanology, Quaternary Science, the future of developing regions, culture differences and even food security, social inequalities. There are two main branches, human geography which concentrates on how human activity affects the environment and physical geography which focus on physical features and phenomenon.

As geography is a science, there are several research skills quite important to this subjects. First, high learning efficiency in lectures, practices and field trips. Second, data collection( quantitative and qualitative), storage, processing, analysis, display and evaluation. Third, the use of geographical information system mapping, a significant tool which can be used in geographical research.

And for the question of how to apply for this subject area, here’s something that I can do nowadays. First of all, I should stay up to date with news and topical issues - these are also that geography students focus on. What’s more, books, blogs, podcasts, documentaries can be helpful. I can even volunteer in the nearby geographical museum! Last but not least, I can also take part in several essay competitions and debates to show that I am competitive and passionate.

Original link: https://fiona-f-ang.github.io/page/2/index.html

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